Everyone has a favourite game from 2000/01. Blackburn away is largely the pick of those that didn’t technically secure anything, while cementing promotion and the title against Huddersfield Town and Sheffield Wednesday, respectively, hold wonderful memories.
But with Fulham winning 30 of our 46 league fixtures that year, there are plenty that may not spring to mind quite as readily, so we’ve selected five victories that proved crucial on our way to the Division One title.
Birmingham City 1-3 Fulham (Friday 18th August 2000)
After a fifth place finish the previous season, Birmingham went into 2000/01 as one of the favourites for promotion. Hosting fellow challengers Fulham in just the second game of the campaign looked a tasty encounter, and so Sky Sports nabbed it for live television coverage in its Friday night slot.
The sub-plot to the evening was a home debut for Geoff Horsfield. A real favourite during his time at Craven Cottage, the arrival of Jean Tigana paved the way for the burly striker’s move to the Midlands, landing the Club £2.25m – a record sale at the time.
Often a clash between two supposedly evenly matched sides would have a cagey opening, but Fulham were in front with just 40 seconds played when John Collins crashed in his first for the Whites after Darren Purse was unable to clear.
The Blues centre-back was not enjoying his Friday night, with his short pass taken off the toes of the last defender by Louis Saha just after the half hour mark. There was only one outcome when that happened.
Things got even worse for City when their big money signing Horsfield went off injured.
Speaking in his next programme notes, Chris Coleman said: “It was good of you all to give Super Geoff a standing ovation when he got stretchered off. It was a tough old collision with Maik Taylor, and we all know Geoff’s not one to shirk a challenge. But don’t feel too sorry for him – when I watched the game on TV I saw him laughing after I got booked for pulling his shirt!”
Horsfield’s replacement – the Brazilian forward Marcelo – immediately set up Danny Sonner to pull one back, but Fulham retained their two goal advantage at the break when some opportunistic thinking from Sean Davis saw him pop a quick free-kick into the corner.
Blues introduced a 20-year-old Andrew Johnson at the interval to try and add some attacking impetus, but it was the Whites who went closest to another goal when Lee Clark hit the post.
Afterwards, Birmingham manager Trevor Francis said his team had just lost to the best side he’d come up against during his five years as boss at St Andrew’s.
Norwich City 0-1 Fulham (Monday 28th August 2000)
Don’t remember this one? Can’t really blame you. In a season where Fulham played with style and flair, this was a game when grit and determination was needed to get the three points.
That said, the goal was still a thing of beauty. In the 88th minute, Louis Saha cut in from the right and fed Sean Davis, who then played the slickest of one-twos with John Collins before tucking a smart reverse pass in towards Luis Boa Morte.
The on-loan Southampton man slid a first time strike under the onrushing Canaries goalkeeper David Marshall to get his second goal for the Club, coming just two days after his first in a 4-1 victory over Stockport County.
It was a rare moment of quality in what was a bad tempered game. Eight players were booked, with a few of those as a result of a melee between pretty much everyone on the pitch after an altercation between Barry Hayles and Darel Russell.
That one day of rest after Stockport was the reason for some lethargy in the display, according to Jean Tigana: “One of the main reasons that we found the Norwich game so hard was that our players had not had enough time to recover from Stockport. There was definitely a lack of freshness in the legs.”
Carrow Road was only our fourth league outing of the season, but having cruised to stylish victories in the opening three, it was pleasing to see us show we could grind out wins when called upon.
Bolton Wanderers 0-2 Fulham (Saturday 30th September 2000)
As the end of September approached, only three clubs boasted an unbeaten record in Division One: Fulham, Watford, and Bolton.
Sam Allardyce’s side were brilliant in 1999/00, reaching the Semi-Finals in the FA Cup, League Cup, and Play-Offs. It was form they continued the following season, winning six and drawing two of their opening eight fixtures.
It meant that Boa Morte’s bookending brace secured arguably our most impressive victory of the campaign so far. The first came after just 11 seconds, despite the fact that Bolton had kicked off, when he beat Jussi Jääskeläinen to prod home.
Jääskeläinen was the home side’s star man at the Reebok Stadium, although Barry Hayles did strike a post in the 70th minute with the goalkeeper beaten.
All the time that we were just one goal to the good, Bolton were a threat with the attacking players in their side, so it came as a relief when Boa Morte wrapped things up with five minutes to play, netting the rebound after Jääskeläinen had saved his initial effort.
It was a statement-making win, with Boa Morte taking his chance in the starting XI after Louis Saha had been ruled out through injury.
“You always get confidence from scoring goals, and I think all the team gets confidence from it too, which then makes everyone want to find an opportunity for one another,” Boa said afterwards.
“I felt sorry for Louis to be injured, but that’s football. Sometimes it will be me injured or Barry injured.”
West Bromwich Albion 1-3 Fulham (Saturday 9th December 2000)
Having drawn our last two away matches, a win at the Hawthorns against an in-form West Brom outfit was most welcome.
The Baggies were sitting third in the Division One standings ahead of the game, but any confidence they had took an early hit when Sean Davis nabbed a rare headed goal, flicking in Bjarne Goldbaek’s corner at the near post.
In an eventful first half, Barry Hayles had a goal bizarrely ruled out before the Baggies twice threatened an equaliser when Richard Sneekes smashed the crossbar and Maik Taylor saved Neil Clements’ venomous free-kick.
That was all before the 28 minute mark, which saw Davis grab his second in stunning fashion, winning possession and crashing a brilliant shot in off the underside of the bar from 30 yards.
Albion halved the deficit through Des Lyttle’s second half tap-in, but debutant Andrejs Stolcers came off the bench to wrap things up late on.
For Davis, that afternoon represented something of a sliding doors moment.
“I was a bit of a naughty boy, I got caught going out in the week,” he explained. “The whole team, to be fair, went out, but I was the only one who got caught!
“So I had a lot to prove, but Tigana kept me in the side and I scored two goals. If I hadn’t scored or played well that day it could have been a totally different season for me.”
Fulham 2-0 Queens Park Rangers (Saturday 10th March 2001)
When Fulham welcomed QPR to Craven Cottage, we were on what was – by our own high standards – a sticky run of form.
The previous eight games had yielded just 12 points from a possible 24, but a 2-0 victory over our local rivals was the first of five wins from six which would confirm promotion.
After Louis Saha headed against the bar, a youthful Peter Crouch had a couple of half chances for the visitors, but it was the Whites who went in front through a Saha penalty after Steve Finnan was fouled as he chased up Lee Clark’s shot which had come off the woodwork.
Not for the first time this season, Fulham had to be patient as we waited for an opportunity to kill the game off, and Clark demonstrated all the composure in the world to coolly angle a low shot inside the far post in front of the Hammersmith End in the 90th minute, to secure a first double over QPR in 70 years.
